Changing role of first lady

Posted: Sunday, January 21, 2007

As Rosalynn Carter remembers it, Washington wasn't quite sure what to think of the Carters when she and Jimmy came to town for her husband's inauguration in 1977.

The worst of the misconceptions were illustrated by a page of political cartoons that ran in one of the capital's newspapers. The drawings, Carter said Saturday at a luncheon held in her honor during the Carter Conference at the University of Georgia, portrayed the couple with straw hats and pieces of straw jutting from their teeth.

"We were not fresh off the farm," she said.

Carter recalled how she tried to reshape the office of the first lady, making it more than just a social-planning agency for the White House - and how she took a more assertive role in the policy end of the presidency.

When she took office, her staff included social, press, appointments and personal secretaries, but no one to spearhead the efforts she planned on mental health or child immunization.

"It was a very traditional and narrow view of the first lady's role," she said.

Carter created a special projects director to handle her initiatives that went beyond who should sit where during state dinners.

But not everyone was happy with a new idea of the first lady's job.

Carter was widely criticized, she remembered, for taking a trip to Latin America in 1977 on the president's behalf. Some said the trip didn't fit in the traditional role for a first lady and entrusted the representation of the United States to an unelected person. Others worried that people won't view her seriously in "macho" Latin America.

"What nobody had anticipated was, when the heads of state realized I was substantive, they saw that I was the closest person in the world to the president of the United States," she said.

Many of those leaders told her, then and in later years, about the problems they had with U.S. policy.

Carter also continued the work she began as Georgia's first lady to get more American children immunized against common diseases before they begin school.

Carter and Betty Bumpers, wife of former Arkansas governor and U.S. senator Dale Bumpers, worked together over several years to get more states to require school-age children to be immunized.

When she came to Washington, only 17 had that requirement, she said. Today, all 50 states do so.

Now, the focus is on getting children the critical first batch of shots by the time they turn 2.

She also shared some humorous anecdotes from her two turns as a first lady.

Carter recounted how her experience during her husband's time as governor of Georgia helped prepare her for handling similar duties at the White House.

Once, she said, the Carters were entertaining race-car drivers in town for a competition at a track in Atlanta.

The plan went well at first, as the racers shared barbecue and beer with the Carters. But she and her staff had selected a performer without knowing much about his routine, and when he started to sing, Carter was horrified.

"It was light opera. ... And he went on and on," she said.

An important rule was implemented after that: "Don't ever hire an entertainer without an audition."

After her husband was inaugurated as president, Carter said, White House staff told her that she could use her telephone to reach anyone in the world.

"I picked up the telephone and I said, 'I'd like to speak to Jimmy,' " she said. "And the operator said, 'Jimmy who?' "

Overall, Carter said she looked fondly on her time as first lady and what she and her husband have accomplished since.

"It's been a good life," Carter said. "And I've been blessed to serve as first lady of the United States."